Unique

My Beauty is uniquely me. ~ Quote at Express MiE dance studio

I am unique is a beautiful thing to learn.  My sister and I were treated as if we were interchangeable.  If one of us liked something it was a given that the other also would like it.  This wasn't true.  We are quite different from each other.  We also share many likes and dislikes but that doesn't make us the same.  Over time I learned how different I was but being different wasn't a good thing.  I was ridiculed, teased, put down by those that should have supported me.  I often felt like a triangle being hammered into a round hole.  I just wasn't going to go.  I dissociated and twisted myself into every shape trying.  Counseling took me on a journey of self discovery.  I found out a bit at a time that unique is beautiful.  I lived in Washington state and watched the snow storms dump tons of snow and I would think how each individual snow flake was different.  Humans have so many more variables.  Uniqueness should be cherished but it isn't.  Commercials busily try to persuade you that this or that item will make you better than some body else.  Keeping up with the Joneses a sad race into sameness.  I struggled to see that my unique qualities were in any way useful or good. I finally understand. I am unique and it is a good thing.  I don't need to reshape myself to fit someone else's image of what I should be.  My qualities, beliefs, and actions make up who I am.  Unique is a beautiful. 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deep fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world!
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone!
As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson for Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech

You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.
Martha Graham Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/unique.html#mgrwuo1jX6dDMawk.99